
README for Replication for: Federalism and Backsliding from a Comparative Perspective
Perspectives on Politics 
Robert R. Kaufman, R. Daniel Kelemen, and Burcu Kolcak 

Replication Instructions:

1. Put all files in the replication archive into a single folder. Set working directory in R to this folder. 
2. Run 1_fedback_dataprep.R. This file uses "vdem-v12.csv" (V-Dem data, version 12) to construct the main dataset used in the quantitative portion of the paper/appendix. For V-Dem Codebook, please see "
V-Dem Codebook v12.pdf". By the end of this R code you will create a file that includes the dataset necessary to conduct the analysis. 
3. Run 2_fedback_desc.R. You will need to use "dems_grand.csv". This file creates figures for the  movement in liberal democracy index for backsliding countries and conducts analysis for the descriptive statistics regarding federalism and various outcome measures. 
4. Run 3_fedback_maps.R. For partisan control of states, this file uses "us_subcontrol_2020.csv" (US), "brazil-gubernatorial.csv" (Brazil), "venezuela-regional.csv" (Venezuela) and "india-vaishnav.csv" (India). For country shape files, it uses "gadm40_BRA_1.shp" (Brazil), "gadm40_VEN_1.shp" (Venezuela), and "Admin2.shp" (India). For US, the shape file for all states dowloaded into R using the tigris package. Here, you will create the maps in the paper. 
5. Run 4_fedback_reg.R. This file uses "dems_grand.csv" and "RAI_country-april-2021.xlsx" to run logistic regression models in Appendix 4. For RAI dataset codebook, please see "Codebook-RAI.pdf". 

Overview of Files

Datasets

1. vdem-v12.csv
2. dems_grand.csv
3. us_subcontrol_2020.csv
4. brazil-gubernatorial.csv
5. venezuela-regional.csv
6. india-vaishnav.csv
7. gadm40_BRA_1.shp
8. gadm40_VEN_1.shp
9. Admin2.shp
10. RAI_country-april-2021.xlsx

R Scripts

1. 1_fedback_dataprep.R
2. 2_fedback_desc.R
3. 3_fedback_maps.R
4. 4_fedback_reg.R





